By Brian J. French
Media General News Service

One of the unique features of a large track meet is that one person can beat a whole team if that person does well in a lot of events.

Midlothian’s Kathleen Lautzenheiser was not the only Trojan to score in this weekend’s Group AAA state meet at the Boo Williams Sportsplex, and she wasn’t the athlete to score the most points (that honor went to Shakeela Saunders, who had all 41 of Great Bridge’s points to place second as a one-woman team).

But Lautzenheiser was a big reason why Midlothian finished third with 35 points, behind champion Western Branch (78) and Great Bridge.

Lautzenheiser opened the weekend by winning the 3,200-meter relay Friday with teammates Claire Benjaman, Marie Johnston and Amy Witt, running the anchor leg to lift the Trojans to a time of 9 minutes, 20.43 seconds to beat second-place West Springfield by more than eight seconds.

She came back Saturday to capture the 1,600 despite only having the fifth-fastest seed-time heading into the race. She turned a 4:55.72, besting her seed-time by more than 12 seconds and defeating Ariel Karabinus of Osbourn Park by more than three seconds.

Lautzenheiser finished her day by placing second in the 3,200, losing the lead late to Sophie Chase of Lake Braddock and falling by .58 seconds. Still, it was enough for her to have a hand in 28 of the Trojans’ points, and her individual output of 18 would have tied Phoebus for 10th were she a team unto herself.

“I was going for a personal best” in the 1,600, Lautzenheiser said, “and I got it by two seconds. I’m pretty excited about that. There’s a lot of competition here, and there’s a better running environment.”
After an unexpectedly fruitful first day of the meet Friday, when area teams won four individual state titles, the Central Region had a quieter day Saturday.

The only other individual champion yesterday was Henrico’s DreQuan Hoskey, who won the 55 hurdles in 7.53 to beat Lakeland’s JaQuan Demiel, who had a 7.61. That was an improvement of .17 seconds from his Central Region meet-winning run at the Arthur Ashe Center.

“Today, I was more focused,” Hoskey said. “I was more into the race today. I knew I had to bring it harder.”

Cody Snyder of Lee-Davis was second in the 1000, and Nikki Nunn placed second in the long jump.

Third-place finishers included Quintin Fulgham of Thomas Dale (long jump), Marie Johnson of Midlothian (1,000), Anthony Finney of Varina (300) and Deep Run’s Madalyn Nuckols (3,200). Nuckols was also fourth in the 1,600.

Western Branch swept the boys and girls titles, but while the girls won with plenty of room to spare, the boys had to survive a remarkable comeback by Landstown in the meet-ending 1,600 relay. The Eagles, who needed to win the event to pass the Bruins, saw their title hopes dashed when their third-leg runner fell on the backstretch shortly before he was to hand off the baton. But anchor leg runner Darrell Wesh, whose 6.30 in the 55 earlier yesterday was the fastest time among high school runners in the country this year, almost topped that by quickly making up ground on Booker T. Washington’s Jermond Colston and Bethel’s Eric Thomas to set up a scintillating backstretch run to the finish line.

Booker T. Washington finished first with a time of 3:26.21, followed by Bethel at 3:26.28 and Landstown at 3:26.31.

Brian J. French is a special correspondent for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Girls Results
Local team finishes: 3. Midlothian, 35; 18. Manchester, 10; 42. Monacan, 2.
Local individual finishes: Triple jump: 7. Nikki Nunn, Manchester, 37-03; 19. Candice Hairston, Manchester, 24-08.75; Long jump: 2. Nikki Nunn, Manchester, 18-11; 20. Candice Hairston, Manchester, 15-11.25; 4x800-meter relay: 1. Midlothian (Claire Benjaman, Marie Johnston, Amy Witt, Kathleen Lautzenheiser), 9.20.43; 1,600-meter run: 1. Kathleen Lautzenheiser, Midlothian, 4:55.72; 10. Amy Witt, Midlothian, 5:15.76; 500-meter dash: 22. Lizzie Weast, Manchester, 1:23.38; 1,000-meter run: 3. Marie Johnston, Midlothian, 2:59.67; 3,200-meter run: 2. Kathleen Lautzenheiser, Midlothian, 10:48, 97; 7. Kaila Blackburn, Monacan, 11:08.11; 11. Claire Benjaman, Midlothian, 11:13.83; 4x400-meter relay: 8. Midlothian (Kendall Sims, Sarah Putney, Erica Putney, Marie Johnston), 4:08.87.

Boys Results
Local team finishes: 35. Midlothian, 5; 41. (tie) James River, Clover Hill, 4; 49. Cosby, 3.
Local individual finishes: High jump: 10. Devron Harris, 6-01; Shot put: 6. Christopher Lusk, Cosby, 50-11-25; Long jump: 5. Darrius Moffett, Clover Hill, 21-04.25; 20. Kevon White, James River, 19-08.75; 55-meter hurdles: Preliminaries: 5. Devron Harris, Manchester, 7.75; 6. Joshua Rymer, Cosby, 7.78; Finals: 11. Joshua Rymer, Cosby, 7.91; 12. Devron Harris, Manchester, 8.04; 55-meter dash: 25. Jimil Perkins, Manchester, 6.78; 4x200-meter relay: 14. Cosby (Joshua Rymer, Brandyn Laury, Terrill Cooke, Ajani Kingslow), 1:36.95; 1,600-meter run: 4. Brayden Burleigh, Midlothian, 4:20.95; 500-meter dash: 14. Jonathan Krone, Clover Hill, 1:08.28; 1,000-meter run: 9. Sam Reid, James River, 2:38.03; 21. Sean Willard, Midlothian, 2:47.38; 3,200-meter run: 5. Ted Richardson, James River, 9:26.11; 12. Evan Niciphor, Cosby, 9:46.47.